Lofts at Headwaters Park (Under Construction) (Fort Wayne, Indiana) | apartments

 apartments, under construction

Announced August 8, 2019 - A major apartment complex – with a 600- to 700-space parking garage, partly underground – may soon join Fort Wayne's rapidly developing riverfront area.

A formal development plan for the 232-unit Lofts at Headwaters Park was filed Tuesday for the northeast corner of Clinton and Superior streets.

The site is the parking lot of Club Soda, one of downtown's popular restaurant spots, and east of Headwaters' Lincoln Pavilion.

Barrett & Stokely, an Indianapolis property management and development company, discussed the project in February with members of the Headwaters Park Alliance to deal with concerns about disruption of parking and other aspects of the park's festivals.

At that meeting, a 300- to 500-space parking garage was proposed along with 200 to 225 apartments and retail space. But the development plan application includes some changes.

Twice as many parking spaces as the previous minimum are now proposed. Plans show two long multistory apartment buildings on the west and east sides of the property.

About 13,000 square feet in two ground-level commercial spaces and a leasing office are shown along Superior Street.

The whole project is listed as containing 542,212 square feet. Club Soda's building will be undisturbed, the application says.

The parking garage is shown as having three levels in the center of the lot, with the lowest level below ground as well as below the 100-year flood plain of the St. Marys River.

The rest of the project stands 2 feet above the flood plain. The lower level of the garage will be entered from inside the building to prevent flooding and will have ramps and walls designed and constructed to resist water infiltration.

A message left Wednesday afternoon for Rex Barrett of Barrett & Stokely was not returned.

Fort Wayne attorney Thomas Trent, representing the project, said he had no information on the apartment styles or prices of the design of the buildings.

When in Fort Wayne in February, Barrett said the company wanted to time construction to be considerate of festivals. He said work could not begin until this fall at the earliest, depending on city approvals.

The Lofts at Headwaters will have a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 9 in Room 35 of Citizens Square.